Analysis of the Different Approaches Adopted in the Italian Regions to Care for Patients Affected by COVID-19

Fabrizio Pecoraro, Daniela Luzi and Fabrizio Clemente
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Fabrizio Pecoraro: Institute for Research on Population and Social Policies, National Research Council, Via Palestro, 32, 00185 Rome, Italy
Daniela Luzi: Institute for Research on Population and Social Policies, National Research Council, Via Palestro, 32, 00185 Rome, Italy
Fabrizio Clemente: Institute of Crystallography, National Research Council, Via Salaria Km 29300, 00016 Monterotondo, Rome, Italy

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 3, 1-15

Abstract: As the Italian health system is regionally based, COVID-19 emergency actions are based on a general lockdown imposed by national authority and then management at local level by 21 regional authorities. Therefore, the pandemic response plan developed by each region led to different approaches. The aim of this paper is to analyze whether differences in patient management may have influenced the local course of the epidemic. The analysis on the 21 Italian regions considers the strategies adopted in terms of hospitalization, treatment in the ICU and at home. Moreover, an in-depth analysis was carried out on: Lombardia, which adopted a hospitalization approach; Veneto, which tended to confine patients at home; and Emilia Romagna, which adopted a mixed hospitalization-home based approach. The majority of regions implemented a home-based approach, while the hospital approach was followed in three regions (Lombardia, Piemonte, and Lazio), mainly limited to the first period of the outbreak. All regions in the later phases tended to reduce hospitalization, preferring to confine patients at home. This comparison, highlighting the different phases of the pandemic, outlined that the adoption of home-based practices contributed to limiting infection rates among patients and health professionals as well as decreasing the number of deaths.

Keywords: hospital care; home-based care; epidemic outbreak phases; Italian regional health systems; COVID-19 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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